"Former" Microsoft executive, Gabe Newell

After the show ended.

"Mr. Lin, it's an honor to meet you in person."

Lin Lixin, who was chatting with a group of reporters and intentionally or unintentionally leaking information, heard the commotion beside him and glanced over.

He hears these kinds of things countless times a day.

But that sound did pique his interest somewhat.

"You two are... VIPs from Microsoft, right?"

Even without looking at the name tags hanging on their chests, Lin Lixin could actually recognize who they were at a glance.

That look, without a doubt!

That face that PC gamers will never forget.

The guy who twists his steamy arms, constantly pulling banknotes from the players' wallets.

Although he has just turned 30, his beard is clean-shaven, and although he is slightly overweight, he has not yet gained so much weight that his neck is no longer visible.

But this face is still quite recognizable. Gabe Newell.

A person who can't count to three is fat.

Fat's life can be described as a magnificent and Legend.

At the age of 20, in 1982, Gabe was at the peak of his career for a guy his age.

Because he attended one of the world's top universities— Harvard University.

The reason for this... might be closely related to a senior who also dropped out of school, went to Silicon Valley, and became a giant comparable to Jobs.

Just like Bill Gates dropped out of college to become the world's richest man, this young man also decided to do something.

So he decisively dropped out of Harvard and then... joined Microsoft.

That's not a problem.

Compared to Harvard, Microsoft, a rapidly expanding new money-making company in Silicon Valley, is indeed just as promising.

From the perspective of the fat person themselves.

He once said, "I learned more in three months at Microsoft than I did in three years at Harvard." Over the past decade, he has quietly amassed millions of dollars in his account.

As it turns out, at least in this step, the fat man's decision wasn't wrong.

However, perhaps even she herself didn't expect to be so fat back then.

His Legend story is only just beginning.

In 1996, Fat once again chose to leave his comfort zone.

Even Bill Gates' personal efforts to retain him and his incredibly high salary offer couldn't change his mind.

To outsiders, he's a complete madman.

Given his position at Microsoft at the time, even if he did nothing but lie there as a technical consultant, he could earn enough money to last several lifetimes.

But he refused.

Instead, they stormed into the already booming video game industry with a huge sum of money in cash.

Yes, the fatness is actually quite obvious.

When video games were still in their infancy and their future uncertain, he quietly accumulated funds and technical reserves at Microsoft. When the dust settled and video games had taken off uncontrollably, he entered the market with his formidable capital reserves.

This was a situation where they were destined to win.

Fat's business philosophy allowed him to easily surpass the vast majority of independent small factories.

Because he's rich.

They have more money than they can spend.

Being overweight is attractive; it's all about first impressions.

Your idea is good, and your way of speaking is very much to my liking, so let's do it!

Dentist, food deliveryman, street musician...

When Valve was first founded, it was simply a group of game enthusiasts composed of all sorts of eccentric and unusual people.

After sitting down in the office and discussing it, the group immediately decided to purchase a license for the Qake Engine and carry out a large-scale, radical modification.

Thanks to V Company's financial power, its game development is quite different from other companies.

Just like AL Research Institute, if AL encounters policy problems while developing a game, resulting in fatal flaws only being discovered near completion, they might choose to release it anyway, even if it's flawed. This is because AL needs the revenue from the game; otherwise, their fragile cash flow would immediately break down.

Not to mention the large amount of capital invested in the initial development.

If we have to start all over again to solve the problem, then all that money will be wasted.

The boss can't accept it, and the investors are even less likely to accept it.

In the end, the designers and developers are the ones who bear the brunt of the blame.

But V Company's situation is different.

What? You're saying there's a problem with the game?

Fine, let's redo it. I have money anyway.

In such an incredible working environment, after a year, V Company unveiled their first game at E3.

And the name of this game is...

Half-Life!

What happened after that is practically half the history of PC gaming. Counter-Strike emerged from the community, Portal achieved great success again, and Left 4 Dead made history.

Team Fortress, Tale of the Titans, Day of Defeat, Half-Life: Alyx...

He's practically an invincible warrior with an almost undefeated record.

Not to mention the emergence of the Steam digital store platform.

Starting with Half-Life, Fat's life has been on a rocket, with the printing press constantly producing gold.

By the 2020s, he had already entered the Hurun Rich List, ranking 329th.

Don't be fooled by the fact that this ranking isn't very high.

But you should know...

V Company is a privately held, non-publicly traded company...

From the very beginning, V Company's initial funding came from the few million dollars that Fat himself brought in.

And of course, there's a portion of his good friend Harrington's influence.

All subsequent funding came from V Company's game revenue and Steam service. It was a completely closed private company that managed to snowball into a massive enterprise.

Compared to listed companies, although the amount of capital may not seem as daunting, no one can say for sure what the actual valuation is.

In short, this guy spent hundreds of millions to buy a yacht and has lived at sea ever since.

Looking back on V Company's history.

In fact, V Company has never won because of its creativity.

Using FPS games for storytelling is not something no one has tried before.

In fact, the number of people trying it is unusually high.

Left 4 Dead is just an FPS game with PvE (Player vs. Player) elements added to it, like fighting zombies.

Portal is an FPS game combined with puzzle-solving.

CS is a typical example of a deathmatch mode.

But V Company succeeded.

Because it has enough funding to allow developers to polish it to its best. At the same time, Gabe himself is indeed a seasoned game enthusiast, and a highly skilled player so proficient that Bill Gates personally tried to retain him.

V Company's legendary success was forged through the combined effects of capital, technology, and innovative ideas.

For game developers, this is almost an impossible triangle.

Large companies often have no shortage of technology and capital, but their thinking is not as free as that of independent game developers; they can only keep applying formulas to produce canned games.

Independent producers often lack the funds to polish their work, and they also lack the money to outsource, leaving them with ideas but unable to bring them to fruition.

Small factories also lack sufficient technological expertise...

In fact, V Company's beginnings were no different from those of other independent game developers.

They're simply richer.

This is a reality in the gaming industry, or indeed in countless creative industries.

First, make sure you have bread, then talk about future ideals.

But in the pursuit of bread, how many people can still remember their original ideals?

... Inside a coffee shop on a commercial street.

"You want to use the Alf-Life engine? Of course, no problem. Like I said, this is a game that encourages the community."

After listening to Gabe and the other person's account, Lin Lixin's face showed understanding.

Although the butterfly's wings turned the earth upside down, Gabe is still Gabe.

He had mentally prepared himself.

He plans to leave Microsoft and join his good friend Mike Harrington in the gaming industry.

This first step, just like when they bought Qake, is to purchase the commercial license for Half-Life's engine.

"In my opinion, players' creativity has never been inferior to that of designers; they just lack a platform to unleash it."

"So you created GG merchant services and ames. cm game website..."

Harrington nodded in deep agreement, his face showing admiration.

ames. cm, a truly remarkable website.

Today, game developers from all walks of life are starting to submit their games to the platform. Some of these submissions may be quite immature, while others may be utterly unworthy of mention.

But the overall community environment is indeed thriving.

Amenva is indeed putting a lot of effort into building its player community.

"I suppose so, but then again, you two are both Microsoft executives. Gates didn't treat you well, why would you want to leave and make games?"

"That's not true, Mr. Gates has been very kind to us."

The two immediately shook their heads in denial.

In this respect, there's really nothing to criticize about what Bill Gates did.

Both Fat and Harrington were early Microsoft employees.

Having worked together for so long, the two have long since become senior technical backbones.

Each of them alone is capable of leading a project team.

He is also a true expert who has been cultivated step by step by Microsoft.

"I just feel... the next big thing might be the gaming industry, at least I'm willing to believe it," Harrington replied.

In fact, compared to Gabe, he was the one who truly wanted to leave and make games first.

Although both of them are avid gamers.

"Ah? Gates is probably having a tough time right now."

Lin Lixin Yile

"Okay, in that case, I have a better idea."

As he spoke, he gestured towards the somewhat empty street outside the floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall.

"As you can see, our town is newly built and really lacks people."

It was fine during the day when the various invited guests were still there.

Now that everyone has left, the large town seems a bit deserted.

"Companies like Activision, Bullfrog, Blizzard, and RCKStar are all here. We're planning to build a community for gamers, like Silicon Valley, like Hollywood."

In fact, it's foreseeable that once the 2,000 acres of land here are completed, the entire Marin County surrounding the community will likely quickly become a place that gamers from all walks of life flock to.

At that time, Hollywood in Southern California, Silicon Valley in the Bay Area, and Amenva in Northern California will become the three core areas of California.

This place will become a kingdom of video games.